Horse of a Different Color
by Glitterglue
Summary: AU future fic. Chlex. i got your banter, i got your snark, i got your happy ending. updated.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: not mine

A.N.: nothing to say really……….

More years than she was able to count or remember had passed since the last time she'd turned on the TV and not seen him waving to news cameras as he ducked into the back of his limousine. Or opened the newspaper and not been greeted by a grainy picture of him shaking hands with some other business mogul. As the omnipotent ruler of all things in Metropolis, why not this?

It was almost natural. It was almost expected. She wasn't surprised, because when it came down to it, because when she was unabashedly honest with herself, opening up her apartment door to find Lex Luthor reclining on her threadbare sofa was something she had been expecting for years. Probably since the day they met, at the very least since that morning, from the moment the newspaper was delivered to his desk.

What did surprise her was the fact that he had taken his shoes off. And he had made himself a sandwich. Lex Luthor, keyless entry, waiting in her apartment like a coiled snake was one thing. It was EXPECTED. Lex Luthor, sitting in his socks, reading the newspaper, and eating a turkey sandwich comprising of one slice of bread and the heal of the loaf…that was a horse of a different color.

"I was saving that turkey for my lunch tomorrow." Not her most witty and pointed of comments, she was well aware.

"I'll buy you some more. Hell, why not throw in another loaf of bread too." He smirked, never dropping his gaze from her face as he brushed nonexistent crumbs from him pressed slacks.

"But with such a burgeoning journalistic career, you should be able to afford those things all on your own." he folded the paper and placed it on the table. Front page, grainy picture of the ubiquitous Luthor, didn't even have to open it up. The latest and dirtiest in a long line of exposes, thanks to one Ms. Chloe Sullivan.

"I'm glad to see you didn't let any nostalgia or sentimentality get in the way of such a hard hitting piece. It appears you left any loyalties you might have to the Luthor name in Smallville. My PR people will be working overtime to renew my image after this one"

"That would be assuming there was any loyalty to begin with, Lex." she bit out, stomping into the kitchen, beginning the age old ritual of making coffee. He followed her, as she knew he would. The soft thumping of his bare feet on the tile unnerving her more than the short clips of his expensive shoes could have ever hoped to.

"Come now, Ms. Sullivan, I think I've saved your life enough times to warrant a little bit more affection." She wasn't surprised by the comment. It was the perfect condescending retort to her insult. She was surprised that it didn't come out arrogantly. He sounded almost…hopeful.

"Unbiased reporter." she reminded him, pointing to herself. He smiled as if he were humoring her.

"Doesn't exist, Chloe. Especially when you're talking about you reporting on me."

"Oh, we're back to first names now, are we, Lex?" She asked while getting down a coffee cup. She was disappointed in her tone. It had come out lightly, almost as if she were flirting. She wondered if the same thought had passed through Lex's head after his line concerning affection.

"If it's alright with you, Chloe." she nodded.

"Aren't you going to offer me a cup of coffee?" he asked seriously.

"No." she answered simply, but reached into the cabinet and brought down another mug anyway.

"You know, too much caffeine causes bad dreams." she informed him.

He paused for a moment, staring her up and down. She realized then how bad she must have looked. Makeup smudged off by the stresses of the day, hair limp and unstyled, dark circles under her eyes. She hadn't slept the night before. She told herself it was the caffeine. She told herself it wasn't the painfully hard hitting article that would leave Lex's PR people scrambling in a matter of hours.

"Well, you'd be the expert on that, I'd imagine." Lex whispered hoarsely.

The coffee maker rumbled on in the background, forgotten by the two people awaiting it's contents.

"Why are you here, Lex?" she finally asked when she became afraid that the awkward silence wouldturn intoa tangible thing that would choke her. Choke them both. Her voice sounded desperate and she regretted that. They both knew why he was there, and while he looked ashamed of himself for the first time in her many years of knowing him, she knew he would give her nothing but the truth.

Because they were both tired of being lied to.

He straightened himself, hands resting firmly on her counter top, and she watched as his face turned into indifferent stone.

"I've come to shut you up. No matter how good my representatives are, stories like the one that ran today can't continue to run. I'm willing to offer you a substantial amount of money, or a substantial amount of threats, to keep you off my back. Understood?"

"Completely…and now the real answer, not the one that your lackeys provided you with."

He glared at her, and she almost grinned victoriously. She had accomplished such feats as an irritated huff or the occasional roll of the eyes, but never had Chloe Sullivan managed something as emotionally revealing as a glare.

"I'm here because it's not fair." he clipped out quickly. If it weren't for the tone of his voice and the utter frustration in his eyes, she would have commented on how childish that statement was.

"You writing these pieces, intent on ripping me apart. It's not fair to you and it's not fair to me. I always saw you as honest, Chloe. Searching for the truth, not going out of your way to be vindictive."

"People change." she replied coolly.

"Not you, Chloe." he answered sharply, "Not…us."

"Lex-" she began to argue, but he cut her off.

"You're going to stop writing these articles. Not because I pay you off and not because I threaten to kill your dad. You're going to stop because you're in love with me. You have been since Smallville, and cutting me a new one in the Planet isn't going to change that."

He studied her hurt expression, "As much as you obviously wish it could."

She turned away from him, making a show of pouring herself a cup of coffee, composing herself before having to face him again. The thing about having your mascara rub off during the day, is that there are no tell tale black lines on your cheek if a couple of hot tears slip out.

Of course he knew how she felt. He knew everything. Ruler of Metropolis and all it's inhabitants. Of course he knew the only reason she attacked him so brutally was so that maybe one day, he would attack her back . She reached for the sugar.

"And if I don't find those reasons enough to stop?" She didn't know he had moved until she felt the length of him pressed against her back, his chin resting on the top of her head. Damn him and those damn silent socks.

"I guess I'd just have to tell you that I'm in love with you too." his arms snaked around her waist and for the first time in years, Chloe Sullivan was speechless.

"Oh?"


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: not mine.  
A.N. I'll make you guys a deal. The first chapter got 5 reviews. If I get 5 more on this one, I'll write another one. Deal? 

He found her balanced precariously on the edge of her balcony's ledge, a glass of cheap gin resting on her bare knee. The bottle was half gone and had somehow been tipped on it's side on the ground beneath her body. Her hair was mussed and stuck to the back of her neck and, although he hadn't thought it possible, the dark smudges under her eyes had grown in size and deepened in shade. She was wearing nothing but a pair of unassuming underwear and the dress shirt he had somehow lost a few hours earlier, en route from the kitchen to her bedroom, coffee forgotten. She hadn't fallen asleep afterwards, which surprised him.

Her physical appearance and the jerky, adrenaline fueled way she had touched him left no doubt in his mind that she must be exhausted. They had settled together in a something similar to holding and being held. She was curled against him and his arms were around her, but it lacked the intimacy he had expected. When he glanced down at her, her body was relaxed but her eyes were wide open, darting back and forth, and her lips were twitching ever so slightly, as if she were engaged in an intense conversation with herself. He groaned inwardly when he realized what she must be doing. She was thinking. The damn women couldn't just lay there and enjoy the feeling of getting what they had both been building up towards for…nine years? Had it really been that long? The subtle shock of the epiphany left him dazed, he barely noticed when she slipped out of bed mumbling something about bathrooms and drinks of water.

It was twenty minutes later that he finally decided she had had enough time to consider her next move with him, with this, with …them? Was there a them to consider? He found her on the balcony with a tumbler of cheap gin resting on her bare knee. When she spoke, it was obvious she hadn't actually drunk any of it.

"This wasn't about the articles, was it?" She asked in a dead voice.

"No, this had nothing to do with the articles." He answered honestly. She shuddered slightly and folded her body down, moving the gin onto the ledge so she could draw her knees up under her chin. His first reaction was to go to her, to pull her inside and tuck her under the blankets of her warm bed, out away from the wind the whipped around outside. But something in her body language made him hold back, despite the fact that he himself was chilled in his current state of undress, the location of his pants, a mystery.

"Then if it's not about the articles, why now? It's been years, Lex"

"Nine years." He responded easily. "We met in September so that made it nine years two months ago"

"You kept track?" She sputtered.

He shrugged. "It's not really something I could forget."

She turned towards him, letting her legs dangle over the side of the ledge. "So for the last nine years and two months, you've been doing what? Sowing your wild oats? Convincing yourself that I'm nothing? Building up your empire?" She shot at him sarcastically.

"Yes." He shot back. "And what have you been doing? Smearing my name and dragging everything I involve myself in though the mud." It wasn't a question., it's what had started the evening after all.

He closed his eyes to regain his composure, and when they opened again, there she was, pressing herself against him. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and heard her mumble into his chest.

"I don't want to fight with you. At least not this kind of fighting. The banter is usually good. This is no good."

"No good indeed." He murmured. While the mood had taken a sudden and positive swing, it seemed that the short conversation had drained all the energy out of her petite body. He picked her up gently and began to pick his way past furniture back to the bedroom.

"What will people say when they see Lex Luthor and his biggest critic together?" He mused casually.

"Who said I'm going to be seen in public with you?" Chloe pointed out teasingly.

"You keep talking like that and I'll take my shirt and leave." He responded with mock outrage. He pulled down the covers and settled her in bed before joining her himself. She quickly rolled so he was holding her, not just something that looked like it, but an act that held the comfort and promises of waking up with someone there.

"You better be nice to me, Luthor." She said threateningly.

"And why is that?" He wondered, pulling her even closer.

"Because when I got up earlier I hid your pants."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: not mine.

A.N. hammered this out in about an hour, so blame that for any typos. Sorry for the delay, holidays and such.

"Your knuckles are bruised." he said flatly.

She looked down from the computer screen to her right hand as it easily navigated the mouse across the grey, matte pad. It would be a lie for her to say that she hadn't noticed. Such a blatant lie that she was almost tempted to say it anyway, throwing in a knowing look so he would drop it. Then she considered the fact that he never dropped things, not matter how mundane or inconsequential. He never dropped things even though he knew he was only harming both of them by picking at it. Not for the first time, she imagines him as a child with perpetual open wounds because he refuses to let them scab over.

She set her jaw and formed a firm expression as she types something into the search space on the screen. The tendon leading back from her index finger burns whenever she moves it. The longer she types the more intense the pain becomes until it's hot needles along her knuckles.

"Yep, those are bruises." she finally replies, actively avoiding his gaze. He pulls a straight backed chair out from under the glass table and sits next to her. He looks at her like she's the most fascinating thing to cross his path all day. To be perfectly honest, she probably is. She continues to type feeling his gaze roam over her face them back down to her black and blue knuckles. The minutes stretch by and still he says nothing. She still hasn't looked at his face, but she knows that she'd find a pensive expression there if she did.

"Lex! Are you going to sit there and watch me type all night?" she bursts with frustration.

"That depends."

"Oh?" her voice carries a note of exasperation. They both know what it depends on.

"Where'd you get the bruises."

She winces. He sounded upset. She told herself it was the pain. "It's a boring story. Why don't you go order dinner from the kitchen, I was thinking stir fry." His gaze never wavers, he just kept on perusing her face and hand with calculating eyes.

"You know what it looks like to me?" he asks. She shrugs. "It looks like you punched someone. God knows I've had the same bruises before. And I know you have too."

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, still not wanting to meet his line of sight. It was really was such a stupid thing. She should have controlled her temper. She could take the whispers. The glares of betrayal her coworkers shoot at her back when she walked by. The post it notes baring the words 'traitor' and 'What are you thinking' and 'He's going to use you' the magically appeared at her desk when she gets back from the bathroom. She could even take the expression of disappointment in Lois's and Clark's eyes that had been present ever since they had found out. She could take that and she had. With poise and determination, which was how Chloe Sullivan did all things, at least in her minds eye.

It really was such a stupid thing. She didn't even know his name, she just knew he was a thirty- something year old who had never ran a front page story, too talentless or lazy to ever rise above obituaries and wedding announcements. He was leaning over the side of his cubical as she strode by, late for her daily lunch with Lois, crossing her fingers that Clark wouldn't join them.

"Hey Sullivan, I guess those rumors about LexCorp experimenting with mind control were true. Were you their first success or what?"

There weren't really any legitimate thoughts in her brain as she reeled her arm back, punched him in the jaw, and then pulled a tissue out of her purse and handed it to him.

"For your lip." she explained as he took the Puffs out of her hand, somewhat dazed. "It's bleeding."

She didn't go to lunch with Lois, she didn't even go back to work. She just hailed a cab and went to his apartment, opening the door with the key he had given her weeks before, when they were still a secret from the world. Before the post it notes and the disappointment. She sat down in front of the computer and stared at her hand for hours, eventually moving hastily to appear like she had been working when she heard his key in the lock.

"You know, back in Smallville, all I'd have to do is climb the water tower with a bucket of paint to defend your honor. I guess here more forceful measures are needed."

She looked up in shock when a full throated chuckle burst out of his mouth. He clutched at his stomach as the laughs proceeded to become somewhat hysterical.

"You punched someone for me! For my honor!"

"Well, it was for my honor, too!" she shot at him, somewhat offended. Lex shook his head in disbelief and let out another laugh.

"I'll punch _you_ if you don't stop laughing at me! Why do you find this so funny?" She spat.

Lex shook his head again and took her hands, being careful to not squeeze the right one too hard, and pulled her into his lap.

"Chloe Sullivan, you punched someone in the face for me. Not just me, my honor, the honor you don't even think I have half the time. I'm sorry, but this act has exposed you." He informed her.

"Exposed what?" she whined.

He sighed mockingly. "I'm afraid you really are in love with me."

She grinned, relieved he wasn't angry with her actions, and moved to straddle his waist. Neither of them had even breathed the word love since that first afternoon when she found him in her living room.

"I think I can deal with you knowing that." she muttered, pressing kisses along his jaw and smoothly ridding him of his button down shirt. He took her hands and prevented her from going further.

"I am sorry. I'm sorry that you have to put up with this, that you have to…'defend my honor.' I wouldn't put you through this if I didn't love you too." he said sincerely.

Chloe smiled serenely. "I know that." she whispered.

They stared at each other for a few quiet moments, letting the knowledge that this, they , them, was really happening sink in.

"Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way," Lex said brightly as he finished unbuttoning his shirt, "back to work."

Chloe rolled her eyes, "Yes, sir."


End file.
